Vertical farming is growing out of business: Vertical farming may be a solution to food scarcity in arid climates, but the tech required to build and operate a vertical farm is too capital-intensive to lock in investors leaving many agritech businesses in the red, Bloomberg reports. There’s a lot to be done agronomically in a vertical farm but financially crops like fruits and potatoes are not enough to sustain a business, says Gilles Dreyfus, CEO of Jungle, a French vertical farming startup.

The key to profit is in high-margin crops and premium products: Jungle’s success is in pursuing crops with fast-growing cycles that are more efficiently grown in a climate-controlled space like basil and lettuce. When grown outdoors, these crops can have up to four harvests a year but in a vertical farming climate, harvests can reach up to 14 cycles. The French startup also favors short-stature crops with the ability to grow at a higher density, leaving room for more crops. Selling premium products at a decent markup, like fragrant flowers to major perfume brands, is the real jackpot in turning a profit via vertical farming, Dreyfus says.

Could vertical farms feed the world? Dreyfus believes they can, comparing vertical farming’s progress to the early days of solar energy. The industry, which once routinely lost money, has increasingly become more profitable. Perfecting the technologies used in vertical farming and understanding its business could lure in investments as crops become more profitable, he adds.

The UAE is making headway on the agritech front: In collaboration with Italy’s Zero farms, Abu Dhabi-based investment and holding company ADQ started operations on its first ever vertical farming project last March. AgTech Park’s pilot phase spans a surface area of 1k sqm and will yield 10 tons of produce per annum when it comes online by the end of 3Q 2023. An expansion reaching 40k sqm is expected to produce more than 40 kilo tons of crops annually — roughly 6% of the country’s consumption.